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Skyline_UK

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Posts posted by Skyline_UK

    Using CW with Mackie ProFX16v3 mixer via USB....

    in Cakewalk by BandLab

    Posted

    Many thanks all.

    I finally got it working, using ASIO4ALL, but it was very disappointing.  The sound via USB was nothing like as good as that using my RME Aio soundcard, and the desk's controls didn't all operate in the same way as with connections to my soundcard.   I realise I've bought a mixer that is probably 90% for live band use and 10% for home recording, despite the marketing blurb.  I bought it in order to have something with a much smaller footprint than my very old Tascam 2600 16:8:2, which I think I'll go back to, and sell the Mackie. 🙁

    VST Scan is not working

    in Cakewalk by BandLab

    Posted

    I've experienced similar problems.  In my case I have installed a plugin and then found it had not turned up in the list of plugins, even though the proper folder address for it was included in the  list of folders to be scanned.     In the end I copied the relevant dll file to a specially created new folder on my C: drive, added that to the folder list, rescanned, and then it found it.  Why would it manage that and not see it in it s 'correct' place?

    Also, I note from the above posts that I have been wrong always  doing this  in the plugins utility.  Do  CW know that it is broken?

    S-Gear has stopped working in Cakewalk!!

    in Instruments & Effects

    Posted · Edited by Skyline_UK

    This is totally weird.

    I went to use Scuffham's S-Gear today in Cakewalk and although sounds are getting to the channel it's on, there are no sounds coming from S-Gear.  The sounds just aren't passing through S-Gear.   I tried inserting other guitar processors such as Guitar Rig, Amplitube, and Cakewalk's TH3 and they all work!    Even odder, S-Gear continues to work fine in Studio One!

    Am I going mad?  Have I somehow altered something inadvertently?  All and any help gratefully received - I'm going doo-lally! :S 😭

    {Closed] Blue Tubes plugins - where did they go?

    in Instruments & Effects

    Posted · Edited by Skyline_UK

    I bought a new PC six months ago and reinstalled all my software.    I've just loaded an old Sonar project that I want to re-work  and it's saying my BT Analog Phaser is not present, which was on one track.    What happened to the Blue Tube plugins in CW ?

    Edit:  I found the relevant thread.  I can't get them back unless I uninstall CWBL, reinstall Sonar Platinum, reinstall CWBL. 😔

    Audio dropouts making Cakewalk unusable.

    in Cakewalk by BandLab

    Posted

    8 hours ago, _Will_ said:

    Cakewalk seems to be the only DAW with this problem. I haven't had any problems on this topic with other DAW's. Yet, I still prefer Cakewalk over them probably because I'm that comfortable using it, and know my way around it. I'm just gonna throw it out there - I've come to realize that when ever I remove the "Help Module" from the bottom right screen, and totally get rid of it,  this problem becomes absolute my side.  It could be my system, I don't know (i7 4th Gen, 16Gig ram, 2TB hardrive,  4.2ghz quad-core intel core i7CPU.) So, this confuses me too. Could it be that there's too much clutter some where on it's engine in the workspace? Some sort of outdated file source? This often happens when the CPU or RAM get's overloaded and does not refresh quick enough. This only started happening with the 64bit version on my side.  I don't recall dealing with this in the 32it version. 

     

    "...this problem becomes absolute my side.."   Can I just clarify, do you mean that audio processing is not as good when you close the Help module?  Is that 100% the case every time you open CW and close the Help module?

    Audio dropouts making Cakewalk unusable.

    in Cakewalk by BandLab

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Max Arwood said:

    ..... I wish we could have an "official" statement of tweaks. I wish it would have  a few levels - These will help, These will help more, and - If you are desperate for horsepower try these.....

    Max Arwood

     

    Great idea.  I'm not a deep geek when it comes to my PC so I don't feel confident going under the hood, even though I'm tempted when I see posts on forums setting out various tweaks.  For example here's one on the Studio One forum which tempted me but I left things alone in case I upset something by accident:  https://forums.presonus.com/viewtopic.php?f=151&t=37827

    Noel, about Max's suggestion?

    Multi-Timbral Synths?

    in Cakewalk by BandLab

    Posted · Edited by Skyline_UK

    Thanks again Noel.

    I've just done the following which bears out what you say, and my incorrect use in the past of SampleTank 3!

     I  changed the Thread Scheduling Model settings, the results of which may or may not be useful to you.

     

    The song at the moment consists of 15 tracks as follows:

    1 - MIDI Drums  via Addictive Drums 2

    1 - MIDI Strings via Halion Sonic

    1 -  MIDI RealGuitar

    1 - Audio 

    11  - Other instruments via SampleTank 3  loaded   11 times, one channel for each MIDI track.

    "System Memory Usage  29.2% (80%)"

     

    Thread Scheduling Model : 2 

    (1)  At  256 samples: no crackling.   Engine Load c.54.7%.  Late Buffers 0

    (2) At 128 samples:   no crackling. Engine Load c.83%. Late Buffers 0

    (3) At 64 samples:  a crackle or two every 15  seconds or so. Engine Load c.123%. Late Buffers   about 200 in the first minute.  About 160 if audio FX turned off (only some Pro Channel EQ on the single audio  track).

     

    Thread Scheduling Model changed to  3 'Aggressive'.  CW exited and restarted.

    (4) At 128    samples:  continuous crackling, Engine  Load different for different plays, but starts at c.112%, climbs to c.126% .     Late Buffers   about 120 in the first minute. 

     

    Thread Scheduling Model changed to  1  'Legacy wait for single object'.  CW exited and restarted.

    (5) At 128 samples:   no crackling. Engine Load c.89%. Late Buffers 0.  

    (6) At 64 samples:  almost continuous crackling. Engine Load varied on different plays, c.117% then 143%. Late Buffers   about 200 in the first minute.  

     

    Thread Scheduling Model changed to   0 'Legacy spin'.   CW exited and restarted.

    (7) At 128 samples:   no crackling. Engine Load climbed from beginning of   the song from c.70% to stabilise at 95%. Late Buffers 0.  

    (8) At 64 samples:  occasional  crackling. Engine Load c.132%. Late Buffers   about 275    in the first minute.  

     

    Thread Scheduling Model  2 seems best for me.

     

    • Like 1

    Multi-Timbral Synths?

    in Cakewalk by BandLab

    Posted

    On 1/28/2020 at 4:29 PM, msmcleod said:

    If a VSTi supports multi-threading, it means can use all of the CPU's cores. The majority of VSTi's do not support multiple cores (i.e. they'll just use the one).

    Cakewalk's plugin load balancing won't help here, as it only applies to VST effects.

    If you've got  the Performance module enabled in the control bar, and the first core is showing much more activity than the others then its a good indication that your VSTi's (or at least some of them) aren't able to use more than one core.

    To get around this you can use multiple instances of the VSTi - e.g. for a 16 part piece on a 4 core CPU, use 4 instances where the first instance uses parts 1-4, then second instance 5-8 etc. This should more evenly spread the load across your CPU cores.


     

    That's exactly what I discovered yesterday with Sample Tank 3.  For years I've used SampleTank 3 by loading one instance of it and directing all my MIDI tracks to it, loading samples across as many slots in ST3 that I need and directing all my MIDI tracks outputs to that single instance.  I recently replaced my 9-years old PC with the powerful spec shown in my signature and was disappointed that the latency performance is lower than that in my old clunker PC.  Did I perhaps shoot myself in the foot by buying a 14-core to replace my 8-core?  

    Using SampleTank 3 as described above to provide sounds for 14 MIDI tracks I have to set my RME Aio PCie interface sample rate to 2048 or above - precluding the use of a guitar processor plugin.  Noel on the Jan release thread has told me that the best way of using SampleTank 3 is to load multiple instances of it, which seems counter intuitive given ST3 is multi channel/multi timbral, but that works.  With 14 MIDI tracks spread across samples loaded in four instances of ST3 I can go to 256 samples with no crackling.

    Is the 'fault' with ST3?  Should it support muiltiprocessing?  (Thinks...does SampleTank 4 support it?)  Do any multi timbral samplers support it?  Why can't DAWs handle all multiprocessing?

    PS: I found on the Studio One FAQs a support comment that says it's best to keep sampler libraries on a disk drive other than the OS or the one where the DAW software is, as loading of samples will be faster.  Is that the case with Cakewalk?

       

    2020.01 Feedback

    in Cakewalk by BandLab

    Posted · Edited by Skyline_UK

    Thanks Noel.

    "If you have a single audio track (? MIDI?) feeding the synth this means that all the work is being done by a single core. "  I have one instance of SampleTank loaded and 14 separate MIDI tracks outputting to a MIDI channel each in SampleTank.  Is there a better way to set this up so that more cores are used?  E.g. more instances of SampleTank?

    "One thing you can try in this use case is see if plug-in load balancing helps."  

    I always have that ticked.

    My PC spec should have no trouble with such a relatively small project.  It's puzzling.

    ------------------------------------------------------------

    EDIT:

    It seems I may have been using samplers like SampleTank incorrectly for years... 

     I tried loading two instances of  it and directing the MIDI outputs of the  MIDI tracks half to each and the crackling stopped when using 1048 samples.   I then split the load between three instances of SampleTank and could  achieve 256 samples with no crackling.    At 128 samples there was    slight crackling, an engine load of  c.108% and  late buffers.

     I always  thought that as     SampleTank   is multi channel/multi timbral it was  more efficient to load one instance of it and direct all my MIDI channels to separate channels in SampleTank.    Now it seems (I'll try it tomorrow) that the best way (in terms of the PC's multi-processing engine that is) is maybe to load a separate instance of SampleTank for every   channel, each instance handling only one channel!

    This new tool has already given me a revelation! 💁‍♂️🤫

     

    2020.01 Feedback

    in Cakewalk by BandLab

    Posted · Edited by Skyline_UK

    The new info in the Performance Monitor is useful, but tells me what I already know, that  I get a  lot of pops and clicks in an almost wholly MIDI project if I don't set my RME AIO Pci card  to 2048 samples.    😩  My project only has 14 MIDI tracks and one audio track.  The MIDI sounds are coming from SampleTank 3.

    At 512 samples I get immediate audio engine drop  out.

    At  1048 samples crackling sets in.  The new data from the Performance Monitor says  my engine load flickers between 70% and 90% followed by  a  figure in brackets of 102% to 105%  once I start Play.  Playback and record buffers are set at 512. MIDI playback is set at 200  Millisecond Buffers.

     At 2048 (46.4 ms) samples I get no crackling.  The Engine Load stats flicker between 55% and 90% with a figure in brackets of  92%.   It's out of the question for me to use an guitar processor plugins  as the required latency for 'no clicks' is unworkable for these.

     I'm seeing zero late buffers in the Performance Monitor.

    Any suggestions as to  what I could change to improve things gratefully  received! 

    Using cakewalk track volume for synths

    in Cakewalk by BandLab

    Posted

    Yes, it's irritating.     I use  NI's SampleTank3 and Steinberg's HALIONsonic.     The  former needs to   do the  learning thing (which I can never get work properly)  and the latter properly obeys   volume and  panning  instructions from  the  CW track with no  problems.    (Thinks:  I wonder if  SampleTank 4 behaves   better?)

    John

     

    2019.11 Feedback

    in Cakewalk by BandLab

    Posted

    48 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

    @Skyline_UK There should be no decrease in performance at a lower buffer size. If you change back to 128 do you still get clicking? If this worked in the 09 release I'm interested in troubleshooting this further with you. Also please indicate whether you changed the latency from the ASIO panel or from the latency slider in preferences.  
    The RME devices do not handle the new dynamic ASIO changes. I assume that the latency slider is grayed out for you?
    Also please enable StopEngineOnASIOPanelOpen for RME devices. I have an RME UFX and changing device settings from the ASIO panel doesn't apply changes properly unless this option is enabled. The driver requires ASIO to be completely stopped before a change is made from the panel. See below from the feature notes.

    New ini setting StopEngineOnASIOPanelOpen

    A few ASIO devices require that the host should not use the device while making changes to device settings. Some devices may display an error or gray out the controls in the ASIO panel while others may silently ignore changes. In prior versions of Cakewalk the only solution was to exit the app for such devices. In 2019.11 you can set the variable StopEngineOnPanelOpen in Preferences > Audio - Configuration File (second property in the list). Setting it to True will automatically stop and release the ASIO interface allowing you to change settings in Cakewalk. 

    After making this change please try changing the ASIO latency from the panel back to 128 and see if it works well now.

    Thanks Noel.  Yes, the latency   slider is grayed out.    I made those changes and   it seems to have solved the problem.      I think I still heard one or two small clicks, but I can't swear to it, but it's certainly a whole lot better.

    Afterwards, out of curiosity I also  increased the  Playback Buffer  size from 128 to 256 .    I have my Cakewalk projects folder on my   SSD   OS  drive.     Would this make any  difference   anyway?    With  32GB of memory  will all the   Sample Tank,  Halion Sonic and  Addictive Drums samples be in memory anyway?     There are  ten tracks  of   MIDI.

    Many thanks,

    John 

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